Does the UK need more travel restrictions to reduce Covid?

After the best part of a year spent arguing that international arrivals to the UK do not need to present a negative PCR test in order to enter the country, the government finally looks set to change course.

Like the increasing number of countries demanding that incoming travellers show proof of a negative Covid test result, the UK is expected to adopt a similar measure, by asking that tests be taken within a 72-hour timeframe before passengers enter the country.

The Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “We’ll be making announcements later today and in the days ahead about how our ports and airports are safe. And it is already the case there are restrictions on people coming into this country, and we’re stressing nobody should be travelling abroad.”

However, The Independent understands there are already calls for British nationals and residents to be exempt from the testing requirement. It begs the question: is the UK doing enough when it comes to travel restrictions? Or will tougher measures make no difference? Two travel writers have their say.

After nine months of flailing, we finally need to get serious about border control, says Helen Coffey

Humour me for a minute, if you will. Cast your minds back to February 2020. Or, as it shall henceforth be known, the time just before the s*** hit the fan.

We had all heard of a scary new virus in China; we had all seen the constant headlines swirling around about Wuhan and lockdowns and the deadliness of an invisible foe that would attack your lungs and leave you gasping for breath.

We watched as the onslaught came ever closer, crossing continents, marching towards us in the West. We saw footage of doctors drowning in patients on ventilators in Milan, heard their desperation as they said this was nothing like the flu – that it was, in fact, like nothing they’d ever experienced before.

And the UK, with its privileged island status and surrounding ocean acting as a natural buffer did… precisely nothing. Borders remained open, even to those travelling in from Covid hotspots. Arrivals were free to enter at will, no test, no quarantine, no nothing. Aside from the fact that airlines grounded the majority of their flights, this state of play continued for the next four months, during the height of the pandemic. It sounds, in hindsight, like utter madness.

Things finally changed in June – a two-week quarantine was introduced for all international arrivals. But, more than resembling the old “shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted” adage, there was a much bigger problem with the new measures – there was practically no enforcement whatsoever. Arrivals were even free to use public transport and stay somewhere overnight on the way to their final destination.  

Time went on, and the UK’s Department for Transport introduced the concept of “travel corridors” – nations deemed safe enough that people arriving from them need not quarantine. The list was soon being updated weekly, with destinations added and removed at will, leading to a continuous game of holiday roulette. 

Someone who had booked a trip to Corfu in good faith might, mere days before travelling - or even mid-holiday - discover that the rules had changed again. They might have a job which did not allow for a fortnight of self-isolation. They might be facing the loss of hundreds of pounds by cancelling their holiday at the eleventh hour and feel obliged to go. They might decide to chance their arm and skip quarantine when they got home.

Herein has always lain the human nature problem of a quarantine restriction minus the consequences. It puts a huge amount of trust in the traveller to “do the right thing” when there is no incentive to do so – neither in terms of carrot nor stick. 

I speak from experience: I returned from Europe in September and filled in the requisite Passenger Locator Form. I waited for some kind of email or phone call – something to tell me that I should be quarantining, ensuring I knew what the rules were and how long I would need to self-isolate for. I waited, and waited, and waited for the full 14 days without setting so much as a toe outside my front door – only to realise it wasn’t going to happen. No one was going to check whether I was complying or not, not even in the most cursory fashion; my “quarantine” was all but voluntary in nature.

Even today, as the UK stares into the abyss of a winter of national lockdowns and very real fears that the NHS could be overwhelmed, I continue to hear reports from friends, colleagues and social media users that they’ve flown into the UK only to find that no one is checking their Passenger Locator form has been completed. It fills me with dread that we are still so behind on the most basic of measures, still so intent on guarding the front gate while the back door is swinging wide open in the breeze.

I’m a travel journalist; I love travel. And I have hated watching the industry I love brought to its knees during the most difficult year in living memory. But it will never get back to normal – indeed, no aspect of our lives will – until we finally get coronavirus transmissions under control. 

If we’re determined to keep our borders open (which is more than many countries are doing), negative PCR test results for all arrivals – including British nationals – should be demanded at the very least, on top of a rigorous system that ensures no one enters the country without properly filling in a Passenger Locator form. Quarantine hotels for all incoming travellers with dedicated transport to get them there, at least until a second test is taken five or so days later, would be preferable as a follow-up option – though at this stage I’d settle for a quarantine that is actually explained to participants and fully enforced, with travellers aware they will likely get caught and fined through the nose if they dare break it.

I’m not a scientist; I’m not claiming to know what’s best. I’m merely looking towards the gold standard countries that have got a handle on this thing and kept their residents safe with tough decisions – New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Vietnam – and observing what they’ve been doing for many, many months while we have wasted time endlessly prevaricating. Perhaps we should finally take a leaf out of their books, instead of plunging haplessly on into the midst of disaster.  

Tamara Hinson believes we need to look a little closer to home when it comes to apportioning blame for the recent rise in cases

One of the most frustrating aspects from the past year has been Boris Johnston’s endless reassurances that we’re all in this together, and how we’ve done such a brilliant job of pulling together. We haven’t. It’s become depressingly obvious that far too many people simply look out for number one. They’ll do what they want, when they want, making excuses that allow them to justify doing so, whether it’s having a house party or seeing friends far beyond any imaginable social bubble. And when disaster strikes, they’ll blame other people.

As a freelance travel writer, in the past year I’ve travelled abroad for work purposes (only to destinations with travel corridors) on eight occasions. Barring that, I’ve hardly left the house, except for exercise. I’ve never once been asked to show a passenger locator form when entering the UK, and while it’s been slightly frustrating to glide through customs without ever needing the form we’re told is a requirement of travel, those concerns have always been overshadowed by the sense of doom that comes with returning to a country where citizens seem incapable of doing what’s right. 

To put it simply, when we’re doing such an appalling job of preventing community spread, how much risk do incoming visitors really pose? 

Last year’s work trips were to multiple destinations, including France, Jersey, Germany and the Maldives. And I felt much safer in every single one of those places, simply because the overriding attitude among citizens elsewhere seemed to be a determination to do what’s right, rather than working out how to flout the rules for personal gain.

I found Christmas incredibly tough, not helped by the fact that some of my nearest and dearest spent the festive period happily flouting restrictions. Thought Zoom calls were meant to be uplifting? Nothing’s more depressing than video chats with loved ones who announce they have to cut their session short because they’ve not only got a full house but a Last Supper-worthy spread of ham, beef joint and turkey to prepare.

Many of the people who ignored the rules over Christmas would have baulked at the idea of travelling abroad. Yes, there was no shortage of holidaymakers heading to the Maldives in December, but the country had a travel corridor, and with good reason – it’s had 276 cases in the past 14 days. Barbados, which proved equally popular this winter, had 66 cases in the past fortnight. In the UK, 58,874 people tested positive on 4 January. As in, on one day.

Enhanced testing or quarantine measures for incoming travellers aren’t the secret to beating coronavirus, because it’s not incoming travellers doing the damage. If Boris Johnston announces stricter protocols, it will be a token announcement to detract from this entirely self-inflicted shambles. If more border restrictions are the solution, why have cases rocketed when fewer people are travelling abroad? 

An employee at one of the UK’s leading testing providers tells me that the number of positive results has increased 10-fold in the past week, in her words “clearly reflecting increased community spread.” Almost all of these tests were taken by people who haven’t left the UK for many months - further proof that tightened border checks won’t help.

There’s no shortage of experts who agree. “We currently have more than 50,000 Covid-19 cases per day at a time when international travel is dramatically reduced,” says Professor Martin Michaelis at the University of Kent’s School of Biosciences. “The spread is occurring in all parts of the country, including remote areas. I have no doubt that this increase is caused by community spread within the UK - residents of which currently represent a much higher risk to other countries than vice versa. This is also demonstrated by the new SARS-CoV-2 variant discovered in the UK, and which has been transmitted to other countries by travellers from the UK.”

My theory? The people who moan the loudest about the lack of checks for incoming travellers do so simply because they can’t quite bring themselves to admit that it’s their own behaviour that has contributed to the current state of affairs. They’ll tut smugly about the lack of border checks to friends who have suddenly become childcare providers, and mention how they haven’t left the country once, while happily glossing over the fact they’ve hosted illicit dinner parties, gone on pub crawls and burst countless social bubbles. They’d be horrified at the thought of crossing paths with someone who’s just stepped off a plane from the Caribbean, when it’s actually their rule-flouting mate from Basingstoke, not Barbados, who poses the biggest risk.